some sketches.

Here are some preparatory sketches done for the work made for the exhibition at Craft Victoria. Ever the obsessive drawer, I have begun drawing the work as a way of both documenting and planning as well as staying focussed on the project - previously the pieces were made intuitively, however now I am so familiar with process and materials I have been having ideas thick and fast - faster than I can make, so drawing has helped. It has been interesting that many of the designs that worked on paper have not been at all successful in reality. The painted drawings use the left over paint from some of the new work I have been making, I found some blocks of huon pine in a review of the contents of my studio and have started to work with this as a new material - I have been painting the backs and in some cases the front of this work. (I have also been developing a rather strong curiosity for the interior of envelopes recently...)

 

a new favourite!

This brooch is called Spill. It is my new favourite. It's made from a cut up plastic necklace I found at my beloved local market. I also made a horrible neckpiece using the necklace - I haven't photographed it yet as I hope to re-work it.Towards the end of last year I kept finding pieces of old costume jewellery that look like the work I have been making for this project. If you look verrrry carefully at the picture of my studio below, you might see them displayed on the black neck stand to the right. I have been prompted to look around myself at the things I collect and examine how they both fit in with and influence my aesthetic - I plan to photograph and blog them in the future.

exhibition opening at Craft Victoria

Here are some images of the exhibition opening for Take a ball of thread... at Craft Victoria on Thursday 22 January 2009. These images are from Craft Victoria's Facebook gallery, I will be uploading some of mine showing installation etc soon. A huge thank you to Nella Themelios and all at Craft Victoria for being so welcoming, helpful and generally wonderful! I would also like to thank Debbie Pryor for her wonderful opening speech; Eric, Debbie, Cesar & Nina for helping me to install the show as well as Mark & Francesca for being such a wonderful support as always.

not quite how it was meant to be

This neckpiece is based on some of my drawings (I plan to post those soon too...). It looked so good on paper, but the reality was rather unfortunate! Needless to say it now only exists in this photo. I have chopped it up now and recycled it into some new pieces... 

Another droplet

This brooch is the companion piece to the Droplet Neckpiece. 

cry me a river

This neckpiece is extremely long and called Cry me a river. It has watermelon quartz beads sewn along its length and the seep out of the rope like tears. Made during the winter of 2008, this piece was a long and laborious to make and I used the time to contemplate and mourn an event that had recently occurred. The title is a reference to how I was feeling and also the extremely guilty pleasure that is the Justin Timberlake song of the same name... 

Update...

I have been a very slack blogger these past months. I have been very busy making for several group exhibitions - two were held in December at Pablo Fanque and metalab as well as finishing up the year at work - always hectic with the student exhbition and so on!I have ALSO been busy making new pieces for the Take a ball of thread... to be held at Craft Victoria in Melbourne. I am so excited about this exhibition. When I was a student I used to dream about having a solo exhibition at Craft Victoria and I am still pinching myself that it is actually going to happen. I am flying down on Monday to install and the exhibition opens on Thursday 22 January, running until 7 March. I am giving an artist talk on the 22nd of January at 5.30pm and a workshop on Saturday 6 March at Craft Victoria 31 FlindersLane Melbourne, if you are in the neighbourhood, please pop in and say 'Hello'!

I have lots of images of new work and some installation images from Pablo Fanque to post... I will try and get all this up in the next few weeks along with shots at Craft Victoria! 

Meantime, here are some images of neckpieces that took a long time to complete. First, the Tumbleweed Neckpiece.

and below is the finished Cats Cradle neckpiece that I have blogged in progress a few times.